Rangers' Artemi Panarin enters COVID-19 protocol, forcing reshuffling of lines
Artemi Panarin of the Rangers looks to pass against Chicago at the United Center on Dec. 7, 2021, in Chicago. Credit: Getty Images/Jonathan Daniel
Before taking the ice for warmups Sunday, the Rangers announced that leading scorer Artemi Panarin had entered COVID protocol along with assistant coach Mike Kelly.
Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said he found out a couple of hours before the game that Panarin and defenseman Patrik Nemeth (non-COVID issue) would be unavailable.
"Things happened really quick, and we were scrambling at that time,’’ Gallant said after the Rangers’ 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Madison Square Garden.
Panarin, who has 10 goals and 26 assists in 31 games, joined defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Jarred Tinordi and penalty-killing forward Kevin Rooney on the COVID list.
To take Panarin’s spot on the roster, the team promoted forward Morgan Barron from the taxi squad.
With Panarin out, Gallant reconfigured his forward lines, moving Alexis Lafreniere up to left wing on Ryan Strome’s line. Barclay Goodrow, who finished the game on that line Friday, returned to that spot Sunday. Dryden Hunt, who had been playing with Panarin and Strome, moved into Lafreniere’s spot on the third line with Filip Chytil and Julien Gauthier. Tim Gettinger played on the fourth line, with Greg McKegg shifting to center and Ryan Reaves on the right wing.
On defense, Zac Jones took Nemeth’s spot and played on the third defense pair with fellow rookie Nils Lundkvist. Libor Hajek moved up to play on the second pairing with Adam Fox.
Gallant had praise for the pair of Jones and Lundkvist, who played 13:32 and 14:21, respectively. Each finished with a plus-1 rating.
Gallant didn’t seem confident that Nemeth will be available Monday when the Rangers face the Edmonton Oilers at the Garden.
"There’s a possibility but . . . I honestly can’t say right now,’’ he said. "It’s a personal issue and we will see.’’
Blue notes
The victory marked the first time since Jan. 1, 2018, when they beat the Buffalo Sabres in the Winter Classic, that the Rangers won their first game of the calendar year . . . The Rangers won 30 of 49 faceoffs (61%). Chytil won all five of his draws.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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